Introduction to IT

It is the first module, of the Technical Support Fundamentals.

What is IT?

The use of digital technology, like computers and the internet, to store and process data into useful information.

• Digital Divide: The lack of digital literacy among the masses.

Role of IT Support Specialist

• Managing
• Installing
• Maintaining
• Troubleshooting
• Configuring

History of Computing

From Abacus to Analytical Engine

Computer

A device that stores and process data performing calculations.

Abacus

The oldest known computer, invented in 500 BC to count large numbers.

Mechanical Engine of 17th Century

It was able to perform summation, subtraction, multiplication, and division but still need human intervention to operate its knob and levers.

Invention of Punch Cards in 18th century shaped the world of computing

Charles Babbage invented the Difference Engine

It was a combination of sophisticated mechanical calculators and was able to perform pretty complex mathematical operations but not much else.

Analytical Engine

Babbage followed his Difference Engine with an Analytical Engine, he was inspired by Punch Cards, and it was able to perform automatic calculations without human interaction.

But it was still a giant Mechanical Computer, though being impressive.

Invention of Algorithms

A Mathematician, Ada Lovelace, realize the true potential of the Analytical Engine. She was the first person to recognize that a machine can be used more than just for pure calculations. She developed the first algorithm for the Engine.

Because of this discovery of Lovelace, the Analytical Engine became the first general purpose computing device in the history.

Algorithm

A series of steps that solve specific problems.

Digital Logic

Computer Language

Binary System

The communication that a computer uses, also known as a base-2 numeral system.

1. Bit: A number in binary.
2. Byte: A group of 8-bits.
3. Each bit can store one character, and we can have 256 possible values thanks to the base-2 system (2**8)

  Examples:
    10100011, 11110011, 00001111

Character Encoding

Assigns our binary values to characters, so that we as human can read them.

ASCII

The oldest used character encoding system for English alphabet, digits, punctuation marks.

UTF-8

The most prevalent encoding standard used today. Along with the same ASCII table, it lets us use the variable number of bytes.

Binary

As in Punch Card systems, a hole represents the number 1, and no-hole represents the number 0.

In binary, electrical circuits are used to represent zeros and ones (0s,1s), when current passes through the circuit, the circuit is on, and it represents 1, when no electricity passes, the circuit is closed and represents 0.

Logic gates

Allow our transistors to do more complex tasks, like decide where to send electrical signals depending on logical conditions.

1. AND logic gate

2. OR logic gate

3. NOT logic gate

4. XOR logic gate

5. NAND logic gate

6. XNOR logic gate

How to Count in Binary?

Computer Architecture layer

Abstraction

“To take a relatively complex system and simplify it for our use.”

We don’t interact with the computers in the form of 0s and 1s (we actually do), instead an abstraction layer like, keyboard, mouse, error messages instead of showing a bunch of machine code etc.

Software layer

How we as human interact with our computer.

User

User interacts with a computer. One can operate, maintain, and even program the computer.

Introduction to Computer Hardware

Desktops Computers

They are just computers that can fit on or under our desks.

The following are components of a desktop:

1. Monitor
2. Keyboard
3. Mouse
4. Desktop

Laptops

They have all the components baked-in inside a single chassis.

Ports

To extend the functionality of a computer, we can plug devices into connection points on it.

CPU (Central Processing Unit)

The brain of our computer, it does all the calculations and data processing.

RAM (Random Access Memory)

Our computer’s short-term memory.

Hard Drive

Holds all of our data, which includes all of our music, pictures, applications.

Motherboard

The body or circulatory system of the computer that connects all the pieces together.

• It holds everything in place, and lets our components communicate with each other. It’s the foundation of our computer.

Power Supply

It converts the wall power supply to the format which our computer can use.

Programs and Hardware

Programs

Instructions that tell the computer what to do.

Hardware

1. External Data Bus (EDB)/Address Bus -The instruction travel between CPU and RAM through EDB.
2. Registers

• They let us store the data that our CPU works with.

3. Memory Controller Chip

• The MCC is a bridge between the CPU and the RAM.
• The MCC grabs the Data from the RAM and sends it through the EDB

1. Cache

• CPU also uses cache. Cache is smaller than RAM, but it let us store data that we use often.
• Cache levels: There are three different level of cache in a CPU
  • L1 L1 is the smallest and the fastest cache.
  • L2
  • L3

2. Wire Clock:

• How does our CPU know when the set of instruction ends, and a new one begins. Here comes the Wire Clock in play.
• “When you send or receive data, it sends a voltage to that clock wire to let the CPU know it can start doing calculations.”

3. Clock Cycle: When you send a voltage to the clock wire, it is referred to as a clock cycle.
4. Clock Speed: The maximum number of clock cycles that it can handle in a certain time period.
5. Over-clocking: There are ways to increase the clock speed of the CPU, called over-clocking. It increases the rate of your CPU clock cycles in order to perform more tasks.

• Overclocking can increase the performance of low-end CPUs, but it has certain cons attached to it, like overheating, more power usage etc
• It can lower CPU lifespan as you’re pushing it limits
• Increased power and heat will degrade most PC components faster

Components

CPU

Instruction Set

Literally, a list of instructions that our CPU is able to run.

• Adding
• subtracting
• copying data
  • When you select your CPU, you’ll need to make sure it’s compatible with your motherboard & the circuit board that connects all your components together.

CPU Socket Types

1. Land grid array (LGA)
   • pins stick out of the motherboard
2. pin grid array (PGA)
   • pins are located on the processor itself

Heat Sink

To cool down CPU, attached with a cooler fan.

RAM

• There are lost of types of RAM, and the one that’s commonly found in computers is DRAM, or dynamic random-access memory.
• There are also different types of memory sticks that DRAM chips can be put on. The more modern DIMM stick, which usually stand for Dual Inline Memory Module, have different sizes of pins on them.

1. SDRAM: Stands for synchronous DRAM. This type of RAM is synchronized with our systems’; clock speed, allowing quicker processing of data.
2. DDR SDRAM:

• In today’s system, we use another type of RAM, called the double data rate SDRAM or DDR SDRAM for short.

  1. DDR1
  2. DDR2
  3. DDR3
  4. DDR4

• Just like the CPU, make sure your RAM module is compatible with your motherboard.

Motherboards

Every motherboard has few characteristics:

Chipset

A chipset is a key component of our motherboard that allows us to manage data between our CPU, RAM, and peripherals.

It decides how components talk to each other on our machine:

1. Northbridge: It interconnects stuff like RAM and video cards. In some CPUs, northbridge directly baked into the CPU itself.
2. Southbridge: It maintains our IO or input/output controllers, like hard drives and USB devices that input and output data.

Peripherals

External devices we connect to our computer, like a mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

Expansion Slots

Give us the ability to increase the functionality of our computer.

• The standard for peripheral slot today is PCI Express or Peripheral Component Interconnect Express.

Form Factor

There are different sizes of motherboards available in market toady.

• Form factor plays an important role in the choice of PCIes
• You don’t want to respond to a ticked without knowing that a customer bought a GPU which doesn’t fit in the PCIe slot.

1. ATX (Advanced Technology eXtended)

• In desktops, you’ll commonly see full sized ATX’s

2. ITX (Information Technology eXtended) These are much smaller than ATX board, for example Intel NUC uses a variation of ITX, which comes in three form factors: 1) mini-ITX 2) nano-ITX 3) pico-ITX

Storage

• HDD (Hard disk drive)

• SDD (solid state drive)

  There are few interfaces that hard drive use to connect our system:

• ATA ; the most common ATA is serial ATA or SATA

  • SATA drive are hot swappable, meaning you don’t need to turn off your computer to swap them
  • The interface couldn’t keep with speeds of newer SSDs

• NVM Express or NVMe are used for more modern SSDs and reduces the pitfalls of SATA

kilobyte

The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information.

• In base 10, one kilobyte is 1000 bytes
• In base 2, one kilobyte is 1024 bytes

Power Supplies

It converts the AC we get from the wall into low voltage DC that we can use and transmit throughout our computer.

Power supplies have the following components:

• chassis
• fan
• I/O cables
• power cable

Voltage

• Be sure to use proper voltage for your electronics

Ampere

An ampere, often abbreviated as “A,” is the unit of electric current in the International System of Units (SI). Electric current is the flow of electric charge through a conductor, such as a wire. One ampere is defined as the amount of current that flows when one coulomb of electric charge passes through a given point in a circuit per second.

In equation form, it can be expressed as:

$$ 1A = 1C/s $$

This means that if a current of 1 ampere is flowing in a circuit, it indicates that 1 coulomb of charge is passing through a particular point in the circuit every second.

Wattage

The amount of volts and amps that a device needs.

• All kinds of issues are caused by bad power supply, sometimes the computer doesn’t even turn on.
• Power supplies can fail for lots of reasons like burnouts, power surge, or even lightning strikes.

Mobile Devices

Mobile devices are a computer too. They have:

• CPUs
• RAM
• Storage
• Power systems
• Peripherals
  • Mobiles devices can use peripherals too, like headset, micro-USB, USB-C, and lightening USB etc.
  • Mobiles devices can themselves be the peripherals, like Smart-watch, fitness band etc.

Very small mobile devices uses system-on-chip or SoC

System on a Chip (SoC)

Packs the CPU, RAM, and sometimes even the storage onto a single chip

Batteries and Charging Systems

• Battery can be charged via wireless pads or cradle
• Rechargeable batteries have limited life span measured in charge cycle

Components require to charge batteries:

• Charger
• PSU or power supply unit to control power flow
• Wall outlet
• or Solar panel etc

Charge Cycle

One full charge and discharge of a battery.

Peripherals

Anything that you connect to your computer externally that add functionality

Examples:

• Universal serial bus USB
  • USB 2.0 – transfer speeds of 480 Mb/s
  • USB 3.0 – transfer speeds of 5 Gb/s
  • USB 3.1 – transfer speeds of 10 Gb/s
  • USB 4 – transfer speed of 40 Gb/s

1. Difference of MB and Mb/s: MB is a megabyte, unit of data storage, while Mb/s is a megabit per second, which is a unit of data transfer rate.
2. DVI: It is generally used for video output, like slide presentation, but for audio you’re out of luck
3. HDMI: Have audio and video output
4. Display Port: Also outputs audio and video
5. Type C connector: It can do power and data transfer

Projector

Projectors are display devices for when you need to share information with people in the same location! Most projectors can be used just like any other display on a computer, and with a few differences, can be troubleshot just like any other display device. For example, projectors can have dead or stuck pixels, and can acquire image burn-in, just like other types of displays.

Starting it Up

BIOS

Our CPU doesn’t know that there is a device that it can talk to, so it has to connect to something called the BIOS

The BIOS is software that helps initialize the hardware in our computer and gets our operating system up and running.

It performs the following functions:

• Initialize hardware

• POST or power on self test

• Checks what devices are connected to the computer

  The BIOS can be stored on the motherboard in the following components:

• ROM or read only memory

• More modern systems use UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface

• Eventually, UEFI will become the predominant BIOS

Drivers

They contain the instructions our CPU needs to understand external devices like keyboards, webcams, printers.

Power ON Self Test or POST

When the computer starts it runs systems checks from time to time, refer to as POST.

CMOS Battery

It stores basic data about booting your computer like the date, time and how you wanted to start up.

Reimaging

A frequently performed IT task is the reimaging of a computer.

It refers to a disk image which a copy of an operating system, the process involves wiping and reinstalling an operating system.

The following devices can be used for reimaging:

• USB stick
• CD/DVD
• Server accessible through the network

Putting all together

To build a PC, we need to take care of certain things:

• prevent static charge
• To avoid, static discharge, you can touch two devices you plugged in but not powered on from time to time
• or wear an anti-static wristband

Building Steps

• Motherboard: match up holes on motherboard with holes on the desktop
• CPU: match CPU pointers alignment on the motherboard, don’t forget to buy compatible motherboard and CPU
• Heat-sink: Before attaching on, we need to put even amount of thermal paste on your CPU
• Plug molex connector (on Heat sink) to the motherboard to control fan speed
• Install RAM sticks on motherboard, line up the pins correctly
• Hard Drive: One SATA cable to connect SSD to mother board
• Make sure you connect the SATA power to the SSD
• Case Fans: Check for label on motherboard which says rear fans
• Power Supply: secure it in the case, big pin power the mother board, other for SATA I/O, 8 pin will power the CPU
• Plug the cable lying in the case to the mother board, used for buttons, lights etc
• Fastens the cables
• GPU: plug in PCIe slot
• Closed the case
• Turn it on plugging it to the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and power outlet.

Mobile Device Repair

• Know and understand RMA or return merchandise authorization
• Do a factory reset before sending it off-site repair
• Before the doing reset inform the end user for possible outcomes of losing all the data

Factory Reset

Removes all data, apps, and customization from the device.

Operating Systems

What is an OS?

An operating system (OS) is software that manages computer hardware and facilitates communication between applications and the underlying hardware. It oversees processes, allocating resources like CPU and memory, and provides a file system for data organization. The OS interacts with input/output devices and often includes a user interface for human-computer interaction. It ensures security through features like user authentication and access control. Examples include Windows, macOS, Linux, and mobile OS like Android and iOS. The OS is a fundamental component that enables the proper functioning of computers and devices.

Remote Connection and SSH

Remote Connection

Allows us to manage multiple machines from anywhere in the world.

Secure Shell (SSH)

A protocol implemented by other programs to securely access one computer from another.

• Popular software to work with SSH, on Linux, OpenSSH program, while on Windows, PuTTY is used.
• In SSH, a pair of public and private keys is used to authenticate the process.
• To securely connect to a remote machine, a VPN is used.

VPN

Allows you to connect to a private network, like your work network, over the Internet.

Remote Connections on Windows

PuTTY

A free, open source software that you can use to make remote connections through several network protocols, including SSH.

• DOING PuTTY can be used from CL, as putty.exe & ssh user@ip\<address>

• PuTTY comes with a Plink or PuTTYlink program, which can also be used for SSH-ing to other computers.

• Microsoft provides another way to remotely connect with Windows computer via GUI, called Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

Components of an Operating System

Operating System

The whole package that manages our computer’s resources and lets us interact with it.

• Two main parts
• 1. Kernel: Storage and file management, processes, memory control, I/O management
• 2. User Space: Everything out of the scope of the Kernel, like application, CLI tools etc

Files and File Systems

File storage include three things:

1. Data
2. File handling
3. Metadata

Block Storage

Improves faster handling of data because the data is not stored as one long piece and can be accessed quicker.

Process Management

Process

A program that is executing, like our internet browser or text editor.

Program

An application that we can run, like Chrome.

Time slice

A very short interval of time, that gets allocated to a process for CPU execution.

Role of Kernel

• Create processes
• efficiently schedules them
• Manages how processes are terminated

Memory Management

Virtual Memory

The combination of hard drive space and RAM that acts like memory that our processes can use.

Swap Space

Allocated Space for virtual memory.

I/O Management

• Kernel does Input/Output devices by managing their intercommunicating and resource management etc.

Interacting with the OS: User Space

Two ways to interact with the OS

• Shell

  A program that interprets text commands and sends them to the OS to execute.

• GUI

Logs

Files that record system events on our computer, just like a system’s diary.

The Boot Process

The computer boots in the following order.

BIOS/UEFI

A low-level software that initializes our computer’s hardware to make sure everything is good to go.

POST

Power on Self Test (POST) is performed to make sure the computer is in proper working order.

Bootloader

A small program that loads the OS.

Kernel

• System Processes
• User Space

Networking

Physical Layer

This layer describes that how devices connect to each other at the physical level. On this level, twisted-pair cables and duplexing is used.

Duplex communication has two types;

1. Half-duplex: Communication is possible only in one direction at a time.

2. Full-Duplex/Duplex: The information can flow in the both direction at the same time.

The information travels in the form of bits in the Physical layer.

Data link Layer

Responsible for defining a common way of interpreting signals coming from the physical layer, so network devices can communicate with each other.

It consists of following protocols;

1. Wi-Fi
2. Ethernet

The data sent in this layer in the form of frames. We can identify devices working at the Physical layer by their MAC addresses.

Network Layer

This layer corresponds to the combination of Data Link Layer and Physical Layer of OSI Model. It looks out for hardware addressing and the protocols present in this layer allows for the physical transmission of data.

This layer includes

• IP addressing

• Encapsulation

  The unit of data in the network layer is datagram.

Transport Layer

Transport layer is the second layer in TCP/IP model. It is an end-to-end layer used to deliver messages to a host. It is termed an end-to-end layer because it provides a point-to-point connection rather of hop-to-hop, between the source host and destination host to deliver the services reliably. The unit of data in the transport layer is a segment.

Multiplexing and Demultiplexing

Multiplexing allows simultaneous use of different applications over a network that is running on a host. The transport layer provides this mechanism, which enables us to send packet streams from various applications simultaneously over a network. The transport layer accepts these packets from different processes, differentiated by their port numbers, and passes them to the network layer after adding proper headers. Similarly, Demultiplexing is required at the receiver side to obtain the data coming from various processes. Transport receives the segments of the data from the network layer and delivers it to the appropriate process running of the receivers’ machine.

MAC Address

A globally unique identifier attached to the individual network interfaces. It is a 48-bits number, normally represented by 6 groups of 2 hexadecimal numbers.

MAC addresses split up into two categories;

1) Organizationally Unique Identifier (UIO):

The first three groups represent the UIO of the device, which is unique to every organization issuing it. I.e., for Cisco, UIO is 00 60 2F.

2) Vendor Assigned(NIC Cards, interfaces):

The last three octets are assigned by the vendor, depending upon their preferences. Which tells us about that particular device it’s assigned for.

IP Address

An IP address, or Internet Protocol address, is a series of numbers that identifies any device on a network. Computers use IP addresses to communicate with each other, both over the internet and on other networks.

An IP address consists of 4 octets of 8 bits, so it has 32-bits in total. There are two types of IP addresses;

1) IPv4 address

IPv4 addresses consist of 4 octets of decimal numbers, each octet range from 0-255. There are only 4 billion IPv4 addresses to use for us, so we need some other way to assign IPs to the devices to overcome the shortage of IP addresses.

IPv4 addresses are further divided into three major classes;

a) Class-A Addresses: These have only the first octet for network ID, and the rest for the host IDs.

b) Class-B Addresses: These have the first 2 octets for network IDs, and the rest for the host IDs.

c) Class-C addresses: These have first 3 octets for Network IDs, and the only last one for host IDs.

2) IPv6 Addresses

IPv6 addresses has 132-bit of hexadecimal numbers, it has 2^128 IP addresses, which solves our problem of IP address shortage.

TCP Port

A 16-bit number that’s used to direct traffic to specific services running on a networked computer.

There are almost, 65535 ports available to use which are categorized as follows;

Port 0 used for internal traffic between different programs on the same computer.

Ports 1-1024 are called system ports or well known ports. These are used for some well known services such HTTP, FTP, SMTP and require admin level privileges for the port to be accessed.

Ports 1025-49151 are called registered ports. They are used for the services not well known as used by system ports. They don’t require admin level access for the port to be accessed.

Ports 49152-65535 are called ephemeral ports. They are used for establishing outbound connections.

Checksum Check

A checksum is a value that represents the number of bits in a transmission message and is used by IT professionals to detect high-level errors within data transmission.

The common algorithm used for checksum is MD5, SHA-2 etc

Routing Table

A routing table is a set of rules, often viewed in table format, that is used to determine where data packets traveling over an Internet Protocol (IP) network will be directed. All IP-enabled devices, including routers and switches, use routing tables.

Entries of an IP Routing Table:

A routing table contains the information necessary to forward a packet along the best path toward its destination. Each packet contains information about its origin and destination. The routing table provides the device with instructions for sending the packet to the next hop on its route across the network.

Each Entry in the routing table consists of the following route.

1) Network ID:

The network ID or destination corresponding to the route.

2) Subnet Mask:

The mask that is used to match a destination IP address to the network ID.

3) Next Hop:

The IP address to which the packet is forwarded.

4) Outgoing Interface:

Outgoing interface the packet should go out to reach the destination network.

5) Metric:

A common use of the metric is to indicate the minimum number of hops (routers crossed) to the network ID.

Routing table entries can be used to store the following types of routes:

• Directly Attached Network IDs
• Remote Network IDs
• Host Routes
• Default Routes
• Destination

TTL

Time-to-live (TTL) in networking refers to the time limit imposed on the data packet to be in-networking before being discarded. It is an 8-bit binary value set in the header of Internet Protocol (IP) by sending the host. The Purpose of a TTL is to prevent data packets from being circulated forever in the network. The maximum TTL value is 255, while the commonly used one is 64.

What is Software?

Coding

Translating one language to another.

Scripting

Coding in a scripting language.

• Scripts Mainly used to perform a single or limited range task.

Programming

Coding in a programming language.

Programming Languages

Special languages that software developers use to write instructions for computers to execute.

Types of Software

• Commercial Software
• Open-source Software

Application Software

Any software created to fulfill a specific need, like a text editor, web browser, or graphic editor.

System Software

Software used to keep our core system running, like OS tools and utilities.

Firmware

Software that is permanently stored on a computer component.

Revisiting abstraction

The concept of taking a complex system and simplifying it for use.

Recipe for Computer

Assembly language

Allowed computer scientists to use human-readable instructions, assembled into code, that the machine could understand.

Compiled programming languages

Uses human-readable instructions, then sends them through a compiler.

Interpreted programming languages

The script is run by an interpreter, which interprets the code into CPU instructions just in time to run them.

Troubleshooting Best Practices

1) Ask Questions

• Ask good questions to get more information about the problem.
• IT Support is about working in the service of others. Always try to create a positive experience for the user.

2) Isolating the Problem

• Shrink the scope of the Problem by asking good questions and looking at root cause.

3) Follow the Cookie Crumbs

• Go back to the time when the issue started.
• Look at the logs at time of crash.
• Start with the Quickest Step First

4) Troubleshooting Pitfalls to Avoid

• Going into autopilot mode.
• Not finding the Root Cause.

Troubleshooting

The ability to diagnose and resolve an issue.

Root Cause

The main factor that is causing a range of issues.

Customer Service

Intro to Soft Skills

• Build the trust between you and the User.

• Know the Company Policies about handling support request.

  Following are some important features for IT Support.

• Exhibiting empathy

• Being conscious of your tone

• Acknowledge the Person

• Developing the trust

Anatomy of an Interaction

• Learn to say “Hello” in a friendly way.
• Good grammar during text/email support.
• Just be professional, acknowledge the user, and show them some respect.
• Respond to User Questions nicely.
• Just clarify the issue beforehand while going for troubleshooting steps.
• During a remote support session, tell the user when you are running certain commands.
• The last five minutes of the process set the overall impact, so end on positive terms with the user.

How to Deal with Difficult Situations

• What you face a difficult situation, relax, and think about what went wrong? How are you feeling? What was your reaction? Why did you raise your voice? Discuss with your peers the situation and get their feedback.
• Try to be alerted, when interaction goes sideways, and redirect the conversation.
• Try to see things from others people’s point of view.

Documentation

Ticketing Systems and Documenting Your Work

Some ticketing systems help track the user issues.

• Bugzilla

• JIRA

• Redmine

  Using the ticketing system and documentation is important for two reasons.

• It keeps the user in the loop.

• It helps you audit your steps in case you need to go back and see what you did.

Tickets

A common way of documenting an issue.

Bugs

Issues with the system that weren’t caused by an external source.

System and processes are always changing, so should your documentation.

Always write documentation that is easy to read and follow for your user.

Getting Through a Technical Interview

Standing Out from the Crowd

• Make sure you have a good and updated online presence and fine-grained resume to stand out from the crowd.
• Research about the company you are applying for.

Resume

Your resume is your first introduction to a new company.

• If you are a new graduate, or are still studying, you’ll want to include a few additional details, like interesting projects that you did during your studying or highlight an elective subject that you took. After a few years of professional experience, though, you may simply include the degree, year, and location.
• Functional or skill based resume format works fresh graduates or candidates with limited work experience: The focus of this format is more around your skill set, rather than your work experience. You can include a brief summary of qualifications, followed by a list of skills with examples for each. This format works well for candidates with less employment history, but lots of applicable skills.
• For relevant skills. You want to include the general topics that you are knowledgeable about, as in customer support, networking, system administration, programming, etc. You may list the Operating Systems that you’ve worked with and the programming languages that you are skilled in, but don’t try to list every networking protocol you’ve heard about or every IT tool that you’ve ever used. The noise distracts from the relevant information.
• Regardless of the format you decide to use (chronological, functional, etc.), make sure you keep the format and structure consistent throughout. For example, if you use full sentences for your bullets, be sure to use that format for all of them and include proper punctuation and grammar. Check your font sizes and styles to ensure those are consistent as well.

Tailoring the resume

• Good practice to check if your resume match with the job description.
• Tailor your resume to each job you are applying for.
• Add your relevant experience for the job, no matter where you got if from.

Your online Presence

• Keep your linked-in and other social media up-to-date
• Writing a summary that tell both your current role (if applicable) and your career aspiration.
• LinkedIn profiles are much more in depth than resumes. You can include specific accomplishments from as many roles as you like, but use the same format as your resume (Action Verb + specific task + quantifiable point).
• Adding in personal projects can also be helpful, especially if you have something tangible to show from it. For example, if you’ve created an application, a website, or similar type of product as part of a hobby or school project, include it and provide a link to it.
• Just like a resume, list your skills, your experience and what you are looking for as your next step. Make sure that you include all the relevant background information that a recruiter looking at your profile might be interested in. Make sure you are descriptive, don’t assume the reader will have context.

Getting Ready for the Interview

• Mock Interview: Pretending that you are in an interview, even if it is not real, will help you perform your best.
• Practice to explain ideas for non-technical audience will make you better equipped for an interview.
• Actively listen to the other person, maintaining eye-contact. Ask relevant questions.
• Don’t try to memorize the answers, just try to practice with different conceptual approaches to get better at explaining stuff.
• You can memorize your Elevator Pitch.

Elevator Pitch

A short summary of who you are and what kind of career you are looking for.

Creating Your Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is a short description of yourself. The name comes from the fact that you want it to be so short that you can deliver it to someone that you are meeting in an elevator ride.

• The goal of the elevator pitch is to explain who you are, what you do, and why the other person should be interested in you.
• In an interviewing context, you want to be able to quickly define who you are, what your current role is and what your future goals are.
• Remember that you want to keep it personal, you want to get the attention of the other person and let them know why they are interested in you.

Examples

• 1) If you are a student, you will want to include what and where you are studying, and what you are looking to do once you have graduated.

Hi! I’m Jamie, I’m in my senior year at Springfield University, studying Computer Science. I enjoy being able to help people and solve problems, so I’m looking forward to putting my tech skills into practice by working as an IT Support Specialist after I graduate.

• 2) If you already have a job, looking for a change. You will include what you do and what different you are looking for.

Hi! I’m Ellis, I’ve been working at X Company as an IT Support Specialist for the past two years. During those years, I’ve learned a lot about operating systems and networking, and I’m looking to switch to a system administrator position, where I can focus on large scale deployments.

What to Expect During the Technical Interview

• A good Interviewer may push you to the limits of your knowledge.
• If you don’t know the answer, don’t say just say, I don’t know; Rather explain how would you solve it by going around it.
• Having a good problem-solving strategy is more important than knowing all the answers.
• If the question is a bit complex, think out loud to keep the interviewer on your thought train, and before going straight into the solution, break into pieces.
• When you mention concepts or technologies, you should be ready to explain them and articulate why you may choose one thing over another.
• It is OK, and even expected, to ask the interviewer follow-up questions to ensure that the problem is correctly framed.
• Take notes when an issue involves many steps, but don’t feel the necessity to write everything during an interview.

Showing Your Best Self During the Interview

• Take a good sleep at night.
• Don’t try to cram information at the last minute.
• Ask for pen and paper for notes during an interview.
• Be sure to fully present for the duration of the interview.
• Be yourself.
• Ask questions about the things that you care about.
• Remember to slow down.